Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz

I'll say up front that I've never read a Dean Koontz book. Oh, I know about his work, but have never read one. So, when I was shopping and looking for a horror/suspense/thriller, I looked over Koontz's books on the rack, read the back cover, the first paragraph, and bought Life Expectancy.

I'm only about halfway through it right now, but I've pretty much enjoyed all of it. It moves very quickly, and the characters are really memorable. I had the character of Konrad Beezo (what a great name!) in my head for a couple days, and Punchinello Beezo is also very well drawn.

I like Koontz's no-nonsense approach. I'm more used to the meanderings of Stephen King and Michael Crichton (not that I don't enjoy the meanderings). I've found King and Crichton to overwrite much of the time, but Koontz doesn't do that.

Regarding Life Expectancy, my only complaint so far is this: the main character, Jimmy Tock, knows that something terrible was supposed to happen on the particular day in 1994. His whole family knows; the dates have been written down since the day he was born.

So what does he do that day? He goes off and runs his errands: the bank, library, and dry cleaners (never getting past the library). He KNOWS something bad was going to happen; he even took a week off from work. Yet, he went out that day anyway.

I was really into the story, and when he went out in his car to run his errands, I was practically yelling at him not to. He could have waited one more day to go out. But he didn't.

It seemed to me that he went out for the sake of the plot, instead of any "real-world" reason.

Other than that, terrific book. I like Koontz's writing style.

allen

I'm still reading and very much enjoying Life Expectancy. I was amazed when he shot Beezo through the throat.

allen

I finished LE today. I have to admit, I didn't see the major plot twist coming at all, that Jimmy was really Punchinello's twin brother and separated at birth. That was unexpected, to say the least.

Here's my complaint about that, though. Jimmy and Lorrie went to the prison to meet with Punchinello to tell him that Jimmy was really his brother, and they brought Charlene, the nurse who was present at Jimmy's birth, who told the story.

But, Koontz never told us why, after thirty years, Charlene suddenly contacted Jimmy out the blue to tell him the real truth. The whole thing kind of came out of left field. It would have been nice to know why Charlene had come out of nowhere to tell Jimmy the truth of his birth. Jimmy certainly could never have found out on his own. It seemed . . . too convenient.

Otherwise, a very enjoyable book. Evil clowns and aerialists. Never would have expected that.

allen